The other day someone asked me what was wrong (as I appeared out of sorts), and I replied, “life.”  This comes off sounding evasive, but really it is the most complete answer I can possibly give because there are days when “my life” really is the thing that is wrong.

There were no catastrophes (thank goodness).  No death, famine, disease or homelessness had darkened my door (knock on wood). But, seemingly, hundreds of little things that make up an average day had been going wrong—and had been going wrong for weeks.

It sparked the familiar refrain in my mind, “Why can’t anything just be easy for once?” I can see by that cyber-head nodding that you relate.  It’s not just the career delays that had me chanting that question repeatedly. It was silly things like finally getting my business taxes done, only to be thwarted by the postal system’s network going down after I’d already been standing in line for 30 minutes (I know that this is a great reason to e-file, but for various reasons, that option was not open to me—as I found out as I tried to do it).

Traffic problems, food problems, stomach problems, forgetting to get everything at the grocery store, misrepresentations, skin problems, missed calls, misunderstandings, rescheduled meetings, bills, more rescheduled meetings, rejections, TMJ and lousy sleep seem to populate the last two weeks. My friends and I joke that it’s “hashtag pilot season,” but I’m really starting to wonder if there is something cosmic afoot. Most of us appear to be stuck in this loop of tedious annoyance that makes attempting even the smallest tasks seem unusually daunting (or suicidal).

Some have suggested exercise (tried that—class was canceled). Others have suggested meditation (construction noise really adds something special to that process). I suggested winning the lottery would make many of these annoyances instantly less annoying—so far the lottery gods have yet to comply.

So, I’m open to more suggestions. When everything in life seems set to annoy (or thwart )you, what do you do? And please remember that it took people two hours to go eight miles yesterday on the 405, so “road trips” of any kind are probably not going to do the trick.